Lunchtime Learning - on 3 Marys of the Bible. Mary Magdalene

Speaker: Canon Doug Chaplin

Mary Magdalene’s greatest claim to fame in the gospels is that Jesus appointed her “apostle to the apostles” — that title is not just the result of modern feminist readings of scripture, it was one given her in the Middle Ages by none other than St Thomas Aquinas.

The tradition has regularly conflated various female characters in the Bible, often making Mary Magdalene a former prostitute who has amended her ways in response to Jesus, although that is not how the scriptures presents her. In reaction, she has also been the heroine of various heretical and unhistorical retellings of the story both ancient (The Gospel of Mary) and modern (The DaVinci Code).

In this session we shall root ourselves in the biblical traditions about Mary Magdalene, but also take a look at some of the ways others have narrated her story, outside as well as inside the church. Doug Chaplin will reflect on her role in the Gospels, and the ways people have co-opted her for their different agendas.

Doug Chaplin is Discipleship and Lay Training Officer in the diocese, and an associate member of staff at the Queen’s Foundation. He is currently writing a book on connecting the liturgy to daily life.

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